It would be nice to be able to sit here in font of the PC and look at things in a positive light but I doubt that even the world’s foremost spin doctor could do little to persuade anyone that the defeat to North Ferriby United on Saturday was anything other than another step towards the gallows and the inevitable drop through the trap door.
I’d like to describe the first half as an ‘edge of the seat affair’ but as this is a factual report and not a work of fiction, I can’t. The truth is that if the match had been attached to a life support monitor in A&E it would have been pronounced dead long before the first real chance of the game registered a blip. Working an opening by cutting in from the left around the half hour mark, Clive Moyo-Modise (who from this point on will be referred to as Clive or M&M) hit a rising shot that crashed onto the crossbar. All told it was an impressive debut for the loan signing from Rochdale, particularly when you consider that the assistance he had was negligible.
And therein lies the problem: you can chop and change the personnel in attack till you’re blue in the face but they’ll only ever be as good as the supply line that’s feeding them and on Saturday they almost died of starvation. Apart from yet another age belying display from David Eyres Mossley’s midfield was invisible. Not only did it isolate a young and inexperienced forward line (how many times did M&M drop back 30-40 yards in order to get the ball?) but it left a defence that underwent two reshuffles in the space of fifteen minutes due to injuries vulnerable as well.
That’s not to say that Mossley didn’t have plenty of possession, they did. It’s just that they did absolutely nothing with it. Of all the corners won and numerous free-kicks awarded around the visitor’s penalty area, not one went close to troubling Pecora in the Ferriby goal. Truth be told, there wasn’t much happening at the other end of the pitch either. The men from Humberside were labouring just as much as we were so it came as something of a shock when they took the lead five minutes from the interval.
Fittingly the goal came courtesy of the one decent bit of football the game had seen up to that point with the home defence being carved open by an inch perfect through ball after possession had been surrendered cheaply in midfield. The following cross into the box was just as good but the finish was solely down to good fortune. With Joel Pilkington quickly closing him down, Bolder stabbed at the ball only for it to bobble up off his shin, loop over Steve Wilson and land in the net. But with over forty five minutes still to play there was a good deal of optimism around that Mossley could step up a gear and rescue the game. Unfortunately that belief didn’t last long.
Even before Mossley conceded a sloppy goal twelve minutes into the second period from a corner there was little on show to suggest that the home side had any interest in rescuing the game. For 35 minutes Mossley made their supporters wistfully reminisce about the halcyon days of the first half.
It would be nice think that United’s numerous opportunities to further increase their advantage during the half were due solely to Mossley leaving gaps at the back as they pushed forward in search of a way back into the game but, sadly, it wasn’t. With the midfield still existing in name only rather than in physical evidence on the pitch the Lilywhites performance was becoming more and more disjointed. That’s not to say that there weren’t some bright spots. The reshuffled back line was performing admirably and Clive was continuing to carve out a few half chances for himself.
As has been so often the case this season, two goals down and with supporters glancing at their watches to see how long it would be before they’re finally put of their misery, Mossley suddenly decided to make a fist of it. By the simple act of pushing a bit further up the pitch they started to look a bit more menacing and when M&M squeezed the ball under Pecora to half the deficit with seven minutes remaining it should have set up a grandstand finish.
But for all the huff and puff displayed in those closing moments there was little constructive play other than to bang the ball at every available opportunity into a melee in the penalty area. The sum total of which was just one more shot on target (Clive once again) and it all proved to be another case of too little too late.
So another home match, another defeat and another one to a decidedly average opposition - our tenth in the fourteen league games played at Seel Park so far this season; an extraordinary record even for a team in our current predicament.
However I’m sure that when the manager’s interviewed for the Oldham Chronicle this week it will be yet another tale of gross misfortune and how we deserved a point once the Pavlovian response to being two goals down in the final ten minutes kicked in but, whilst it may fool those whose only view of the game was reading the result in the paper, it’s a hard luck story that will carry no sympathy with those who saw the match with their own eyes.
There are plenty of questions that come to mind as well like why the introduction of the pace and bustle that Steve Burke provides was done so at the expense of another forward when were two goals down? Alex Taylor may not have been having the best of games but he was contributing more than some other players.
We're in the fight of our lives yet we're chucking inexperienced players on to the pitch in the desperate hope that they can turn things around. Two years ago the supporters were criticised for expecting too much out of young players in the drive for a play-off spot. Yet now young players are being expected to drag us out of what is an even tougher situation, especially upfront where the need for goals weighs heavily on two teenagers and a twenty year old?
Who knows what the next two months hold for us? Maybe the prospect of playing better opposition in the next two games will bring out the best in us but one thing is for certain, more performances like this one and we'll soon be drinking out the drips tray in the last chance saloon.
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